The History of Memorial Day

Memorial Day is next Monday. While many people spend the day visiting cemeteries, having lunch with the family, and thinking about the loved ones we’ve lost, most people don’t actually know how Memorial Day began.

The holiday has its roots back in 1865, hen decorating solders’ graves became popular in the north U.S. The first observance was in May of 1866 in Waterloo, New York. This town-wide event became an annual observance. General John Murray, a Waterloo resident, and General John Logan helped promote the practice. Logan, the head of a group for Northern Civil War veterans, named May 30 as Decoration Day in 1868. May 30 was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any battle and so any soldier and any conflict could be remembered.

The day of remembrance spread throughout the north U.S. within a few years. Michigan became the first state to make Decoration Day an official holiday in 1871, and by 1890, every northern state had done the same. Many different groups began sponsoring ceremonies and other events on Decoration Day.

In the South, the day actually started as the day freed slaves celebrated their freedom. In 1865, the first large group of freedmen gathered at the Washington Race Course to celebrate. The course had temporarily served as a prison camp for Union soldiers captured by the Confederacy, and it was home to a mass grave for those who died in the camp. The freedmen reburied each of the soldiers in individual graves and built a fence around it, declaring it a Union graveyard. A number of sermons and ceremonies were held there on May 1, 1865.

The Southern states adopted Decoration Day, but each state held their own anywhere from late April to mid-June. June 3, the birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, was named a state holiday in 1916 in ten states, and it served as an equivalent to Decoration Day for residents. These celebrations, unlike some of the North’s, were serious, simple events. One state, Mississippi, celebrated both Union and Confederate soldiers in 1866, making its Decoration Day one of the earliest events to honor all fallen soldiers.

In 1882, the name Memorial Day was used for the first time. However, it didn’t become commonly used until after World War II. The name was chosen as the name of the official federal holiday in 1967. In 1968, the Uniform Holidays Bill merged three different holidays (Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Washington’s Birthday) into Memorial Day and set its current date, the last Monday of May. This official day took effect in 1971.

Since then, all 50 states have followed the Federal Memorial Day weekend. However, several senators and representatives have attempted to have the date changed back to May 30. The bills have received some attention but have always failed.

Celebrate Your Graduation

Graduation…you’ve done it! You’ve finished a major time in your life. Before you move on to higher education or work, take a moment or two to celebrate your graduation. How? Well, here are a few ideas.

Your family will most likely throw you a graduation party, so there’s one major way of celebrating. They might bring cards, small gifts, or flowers to the ceremony itself. Following that, many of your family members may gather at a restaurant or a house to have cake and tell you congratulations.

Another way some people celebrate is by going out with their classmates after the ceremony for one last big party. Parents sometimes discourage this, especially after high school graduation, but it is a nice way for people to say goodbye.

While these are ways to celebrate right after the ceremony, you may want to take a longer break. School can be stressful no matter what kind of school it is. If you’re planning on college or graduate school, you might even want to take the whole summer off as a way of celebrating your accomplishment. Barring that, some people at least take a few weeks off as a reward.

What about doing something bigger? Some people actually take a big vacation following their graduation. Classmates may plan a trip together, or the family might take a vacation to celebrate their grad. You might even want to take a trip by yourself. Some graduates even go all-out and backpack across Europe or take a roadtrip and visit many places before moving on to the next stage of their lives.

No matter how you celebrate your graduation, be sure you do take time to properly enjoy yourself. Your graduation is a big moment, and you’ve worked hard for it.

Shower Your Mom with Love

This Mother’s Day, take the time to shower your mom with love. She truly deserves it! There are many different things you can do for your mom this Mother’s Day to show her just how much you love her: take her out to eat, buy her flowers, and get her a gift. But what do you get your mom? Many moms seem to have it all, and showering her with love can be difficult. True, the sentiment is all that really matters, but you feel badly if you don’t get mom something. Here are some unique gift ideas that will not only show her how much she’s loved but are also a little different.

Make her mix CDs of her favorite music. Some older moms may not know how to create mix CDs or may not be that computer-savvy, but most everyone has a CD player now. If mom doesn’t, buy her one to go along with the gift. Create CDs of some of her favorite artists and songs, and then design some cool labels for them. You could even have each of your kids make their mom a CD.

If you’re an artist, paint mom a portrait. Maybe do one of her, or of your family, or just paint a picture you know she will like. Make her a sculpture, write a song just for her, or write her a poem—anything creative and unique is sure to make your mom feel incredibly special.

Instead of buying a Mother’s Day card, make one. Your kids will have a lot of fun doing this, but adults can have fun making a card, too. Get creative and cut out pictures, add different decorative things, and use lots of color. Mother’s Day cards don’t have to be serious, so have some fun with it.

Make a photo or video collage. If you’re into scrapbooking, you can make a scrapbook for mom, or do a single page and frame it. If you’re more technology-minded, take some of those home videos (new or old) and create a music video for mom. It’s sure to be something she will watch over and over.

No matter how you shower mom with love this Mother’s Day, make sure it’s special. Do something unique for her that you know she will appreciate. It’s the thought that counts, and while that may be a cliché, it’s certainly still true!